Catholic Indians

Here's a head-scratcher. In spite of the fact that some perverted priests raped them and their children for generations, many Indigenous people remain devout Catholics. It's mainly for them that the Holy Father is taking his tour of Canada this week. They're calling it a tour of penitence. His Holiness is atoning for the depredations visited on Native children by the priesthood, mostly in the "residential school" system. There was an item in the news a few years ago, about the funeral for a priest who had ministered to a Native community in Saskatchewan all his life. They loved him. Apparently not all priests were predatory perverts. Indians attended his funeral in their hundreds, from all over the province. But today we're not allowed to hear about the good priests who were loved in their communities. It's the mantra of our age; cling tight to grievance and nurture it with your last drop of energy. The Pope brings a potential antidote to bitterness, recrimination, and multi-generational trauma. Forgiveness.